Updated: May
2008
South
Africa Country Programme
Country Programme Coordinator Information:
Farmer
Support Group (FSG)
Contact persons: Ms Brigid Letty / Ms Monique Salomon
Private Bag X01, Scottsville 3201
South Africa
E-mail: lettyb@ukzn.ac.za / salomon@ukzn.ac.za
FAIR Innovation Support Funds
Contact person: Mr Anton Krone
E-mail: antonkrone@wol.co.za
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The Farmer Support Group (FSG) is the facilitating NGO for Prolinnova-South Africa, which aims to build and strengthen partnerships between the various stakeholders involved in agricultural research and development in South Africa.
A Core Team is responsible for overall strategic direction. Its members come from the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), Biowatch, Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, University of Limpopo, and Vaal University of Technology. Other partners in the programme include ACAT, ARDRI University of Fort Hare, CSIR, Diocese of Marianhill, Institute of Natural Resources, Limpopo Department of Agriculture, Valley Trust and Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM)- South Africa.The programme in South Africa was launched in 2004.Activities include:
- Inventorying and assessing in-country experiences in promoting local/indigenous innovation and farmer-led participatory technology/innovation developmentNational Stakeholder Workshop on experiences in participatory research and development in South Africa and joint action planningCapacity building of development practitioners and farmers in Participatory Innovation Development (PID)Identification of local innovations, which has led to publication of a catalogue showcasing 20 farmer innovators identified by participants in the training workshopsIntegration of the Local Innovation and PID approaches into research, extension and education/training systems
- Setting up sustainable Innovation Support Funds (ISFs) to give innovative farmers access to resources for their own experimentation and innovation. This is part of an international project called FAIR (Farmer Access to Innovation Resources) to set up ISFs in South Africa, Uganda, Sudan and Cambodia. FAIR is managed by Prolinnova-South Africa.
A key concern of the programme is how to protect farmers' intellectual property rights and maintain their competitive advantage, while encouraging them to share innovations so as to stimulate dynamic innovation processes that bring together different knowledge systems.
Prolinnova-South Africa contact info(s):FSG and FAIR
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